Curry’s the UK equivalent of JB Hi Fi has lifted its profit guidance after ‘strong peak trading’ and like what Labor is doing in Australia the Company is claiming that new UK Labor Government moves in the UK to change employment contracts could hurt the business.
The big CE retailer who is witnessing sales of premium prodits and is now chasing profits over volum sales, claim that invested in providing flexible working opportunities across its organisation in recent years – with measures including the introduction of flexible shift patterns for store staff, now this is under attack by a UK Labor Government.
Curry’s boss Alex Baldock has warned against the “potential unintended consequences” the government faces as it looks to update the UK’s employment laws.
The chief executive said the proposed reform, which will scrap zero hour contracts and remove probationary periods to strengthen workers’ rights from day one, risked “damaging the flexibility that’s so important to colleagues”.
“The risk is that, far from boosting growth, these employment measures make it harder, riskier and more expensive to employ colleagues,” Baldock explained.
In a trading update for the 10 weeks to January 4, 2025, Curry’s reported a 2% jump in UK revenues and a 1% uptick in sales in overseas revenues.
The business that is facing new competition from Harvey Norman who is moving to open more stores in the UK said that they benefitted from “strong sales in mobile, gaming and premium computing, offset by weaker trends in TV.”
This is a similar pattern to what is happening in Australia with Samsung’s Eric Chou director of Mobile Experience telling ChannelNews that both their premium and affordable premium sales are up in the last quarter.
Currys said omnichannel sales outperformed during the period, with click-and-collect sales up 13% and online-in-store sales up 24%.
The biggest issue for the likes of Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi and The Good Guys is a “significant fall” in sales of TV’s similar to what Curry’s are reporting.
The business also said it maintained a good balance of sales and margins across all of their retail stores and was no longer “chasing less profitable sales”.
As a result of their past strong trading period, Currys’ adjusted group profit before tax outlook is now expected to be between A$285 and A$355 Million up 23% to 31% year on year and ahead of consensus expectations.

Curry’s CEO Alex Baldcock
Baldock said: “We’re pleased by our strong peak trading. We grew both locally and overseas, continuing the trend of Currys’ strengthening performance, and we believe this year’s profits will be ahead of market expectations. With our ever-stronger cash generation and much-improved balance sheet, the board now expects to pay a dividend at the year-end.
“This peak, customers took advantage of our market-beating deals and best-ever availability. AI laptops, where we have 75% market share, and premium mobiles proved especially popular. In all markets, customers showed they preferred shopping both online and in-store, and our investments in both channels paid off.
“In the UK and Ireland, we’ve continued to grow sales and keep margins stable, offsetting current cost headwind”.
He said that “Mobile and B2B performed especially strongly, as did sales of the services and solutions that are so valuable to customers and to us”.
Several Australian suppliers sell stock to Curry’s.
Recently Currys has introduced electronic shelf edge labelling to around 100 of its stores in the UK, which Baldock said “saves colleagues a much-disliked job and improves the cost efficiency”.
There was no mention of the fact that retailers are using electronic labelling to change prices during trading hours depending on what their competitors are doing.